Child&#39;s chair construction and method for forming play furniture

ABSTRACT

An operating principle or method and a construction for small chairs that can be utilized by children to form playthings at home or at the nursery, crèche or kindergarten. When such chairs are being coupled with U-shaped clamps, a variety of doll&#39;s furniture can be created by the children themselves. The child&#39;s furniture is safe and easy to handle while assembling or disassembling them. Combinations of said chairs could form such playthings as barns, high rise buildings, doll houses, a doll&#39;s crib, a bed, a puppet theatre, a couch, an umpire seat and so on.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to children's play furniture. More particularly, this invention relates to a construction of small chairs that can be utilized by children to form playthings at home or at the nursery, crèche or kindergarten. This invention also relates to a method of assembling and disassembling play furniture.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

[0002] It is an object of this invention to provide means of construction of play furniture and an operating method that cannot harm children when in play they assemble and disassemble the play furniture.

[0003] Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the drawings and descriptions hereof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The present invention is directed in part to play chairs for children and provides a tool and an operating principle or method of using the tool. Each chair has facilities to clamp one or more other chairs to its side, front or bottom—either in normal or upside down positions—simply by plugging the peg-ends of clamps (U-shaped pieces) in connecting holes that are named slot-holes. By connecting the play chairs with the special coupling clamps, small children can make puppet furniture such as barns, high rise buildings, doll-houses, a crib, a bed, a puppet theatre, a couch, an umpire seat and so on. Toddlers may need some help to get started making their first plaything. For small children there is an increasing need to develop skills while playing. It requires tools designed to generate and challenge creativity, fantasy and locomotion ability.

[0005] The operating principle of this invention for assembling the child's chairs is characterized by the following procedures:

[0006] releasing the idle U-shaped clamps from the storage holes by leverage with the help of a levering-end of a “design” club or stick, named clamp-lever;

[0007] combining the chairs by placing them next to each other, or alternatively, one in an upside down or reversed position on top of the other;

[0008] coupling the chairs with the clamps by engaging each peg-end of a clamp in a matching slot hole of a chair in the combination; and

[0009] tightly wedging the peg-ends in the slot holes by tapping the clamp's bow with the fat tapping-end of the “design” club or stick, named clamp-tapper.

[0010] The methodology in this invention using the child's chair is further characterized by the following procedures for disassembling:

[0011] positioning the levering-end of the “design” club or stick underneath the bow of a clamp that connects two of the child's chairs;

[0012] leveraging and/or lifting the clamp out of the slot holes with the levering-club; and

[0013] putting clamps back at the storage holes.

[0014] A desired design of this invention relates to a child's chair construction with rectangular boards for the seat, the two sides and the back. The boards' planes are fixed together at right angles with glue and/or pegs or screws. The height of the leaning part of the back board has the same height as the seat above the ground level minus the thickness of the sitting board. In view of the many options to make combinations all boards have slot holes pierced at specifically chosen points near the edges and corners of the boards. The distance of the shortest perpendicular line between slot holes and the edge of the seat plane, the back plane and the side planes as well as the virtual front plane and the virtual ground level plane are equal and 0.5b in length. Whereby b is a fixed distance between the peg-ends of the clamp. The distance b will be preferably about 6 centimeter when the chair is made with dimensions of 25 cm width, and 17 cm height of the seat. The diameter of the slot-holes are equal to the diameter of the peg-ends of a clamp.

[0015] In case of an upside down combination of chair couplings there are extra slot holes provided in the edges between (and parallel) the boards' planes at the front of the side boards or in the edges between (and parallel) the seat boards' planes. The distance between matching slot-holes of the first chair and the second chair in all cases is again b cm. Anyway, in alternative designs there are possibilities of a multiple amount of slot-holes at places where the peg-ends of the clamps can exercise their coupling function. Furthermore, windows can be made in the boards for decoration and also to lower weight. These windows can be chosen to be made circular, square or any other fantasy figure. The decorative alternatives are not shown in the figures.

[0016] In the desired design of clamps for coupling the chairs relate to clamps that are formed in a U-shape i.e. approximately halve a ring and having an elastic spring stiffness of steel that will not deform when applied in performance. By experience with a number of prototypes it was observed that clamps made from a rod with a diameter between 6 and 8 mm thickness and with peg-ends distance of 6 to 8 cm would suffice to make a successful coupling, particularly when such chairs are 25 cm of width and 17 cm of height.

[0017] To every small chair belong at least two clamps, implying that with every coupling of two chairs four clamps are used for the construction of a piece of doll furnishing. During construction the peg-ends of a clamp are tapped in the slot-holes preferably by a wooden stick or “design” club. The thin end of the “design” club or stick can be used as a leverage tool to lift the clamps out of their slot-holes for disassembling the furniture.

[0018] In an alternative design the planes of the boards at the sides together with the seat board and the ground level plane would form a cube.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] In order that the invention may be more fully understood it will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0020]FIG. 1 shows a perspective drawing of the preferred child's chair.

[0021]FIG. 2 shows a detail in top view.

[0022]FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5, show an overview of respectively a front view, a back view and a side view.

[0023]FIG. 6 a coupling of two chairs forming a doll's bed.

[0024]FIG. 7 an enlargement of a coupling with clamp and slot-holes.

[0025]FIG. 8 an enlargement of a “design” club at which fat end clamps can be tapped for engaging their peg-ends in slot-holes and at which thin end a clamp can be levered for disengaging of clamps from slot-holes.

[0026]FIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG. 11, FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and FIG. 14 show a number of combination possibilities of coupled child's chairs forming respectively: a small bench, a doll's crib, an occasional table, a throne (double height chair), a high riser or umpire chair, and a puppet theatre.

[0027]FIG. 15 shows a puppet theatre in perspective.

[0028]FIG. 16 shows a doll's crib in perspective.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0029] The details of the drawing in FIG. 1 show in perspective a preferred design in which the back board 1 is attached with right angles to the seat board 2 as well as the side boards 3 forming altogether a child's chair and whereby the small circles 4 indicate the positioning of slot-holes that are pierced through the boards. Moreover, extra slot-holes 5 are shown that are drilled a few centimeters deep in the side boards parallel with the planes of the side boards and the seat board. In this drawing also two U-shaped clamps 6 are shown that are engaged in the slot-hole position for the preferred storage of clamps when they are not active in their coupling function.

[0030] The drawing of FIG. 2 is an enlargement of a top down view of the preferred child's chair whereby the position of the slot-holes 4 are specified at a distance of 0.5b from the edges. In this regard b is the distance between the peg-ends of a clamp.

[0031]FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 show the positions of the slot-holes 4 respectively in a front view, in a view on the back, and in a view on the side. In the front view of FIG. 3 is, apart from the drilled holes 5 in the side boards 3, shown a desired position of storing clamps 6 in special slot-holes and the holding of the clamp-tapper 8. The latter is also to be used as a clamp-lever and is enlarged in FIG. 8.

[0032]FIG. 6 shows coupling for the connection of two chairs forming a doll's bed in which the clamps 6 engage in slot-holes 4 of the side-boards 3 because the peg-ends 7 of the clamps are tightly wedged in the slot-holes by tapping.

[0033]FIG. 7 shows a number of details of the U-shaped clamp 6 of which the straight legs at the peg-ends 7 are parallel at b cm distance and are, in the preferred design, only a number of millimeters long in order to fit snuggly in the slot-holes and in order to tightly wedge after furthering the said the clamp legs by tapping them beyond their point of transition from straight to curbed in the U-shape. The tips of the peg-ends 7 are preferably rounded in order to ease the beginning of penetration into the slot-holes 4.

[0034]FIG. 8 shows a preferred design of a wooden “design” club serving at the fat end 8 as a clamp-tapper to tap the peg ends in the slot-holes and at the thin end a clamp-lever 9 to lift the peg-ends of the clamp from the slot-holes e.g. when the chairs are being disassembled. As is shown in FIG. 3, one of the clamps at the storage position can hold this “design” club in place for storage by putting one of its legs of the U through the hole 10 of the club.

[0035] FIGS. 9-16 are mostly self-explanatory. They show a number of possibilities of furnishings in which the position of the U-shaped clamps 6 are elucidated.

[0036]FIG. 9 shows a view on the back of two coupled chairs forming a small two-seater.

[0037]FIG. 10 shows a view on the side of two coupled chairs forming a doll's crib.

[0038]FIG. 11 shows a view on the side of two coupled chairs forming an occasional table.

[0039]FIG. 12 shows a front view of two coupled chairs forming a throne with an enclosure underneath to be used as a “secret” small “treasure” room.

[0040]FIG. 13 shows a front view of a coupling whereby the top chair is coupled upside-down forming an umpire chair or a doll's high-riser.

[0041]FIG. 14 shows a view on the side of a coupling forming a small puppet theatre.

[0042] Finally, FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 show in perspective respectively a puppet theatre and a doll's crib.

[0043] With the above-discussed drawings only a number of possibilities of couplings have been shown and described. It will be obvious that much more playthings can be constructed with more then two of the chairs clamped together. Such possibilities will be left to the imagination of the children and their nursery school teachers and all others that want to exploit the chairs as child's seat and as plaything. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A child's chair comprising four rectangular boards glued or screwed together in right angle connections forming back-plane, seat-plane and side-planes, and comprising U-shaped clamps and means to enable coupling of identical chairs, slot-holes integral with said boards for providing access and egress of peg-ends of said clamps to and from said slot-holes, said slot-holes being positioned at a distance of half the span-width of the peg-ends of said clamps in the shortest perpendicular line between slot-hole and the edge of said planes, and wherein the diameter of said peg-ends is equal to the diameter of said slot-holes while their tips are rounded for easy access.
 2. A child's chair according to claim 1, wherein the height of the leaning part of the back-board is in length equal to the height of the seat-plane from the ground plane minus the thickness of the sitting board.
 3. A child's chair according to claim 1, wherein one or more additional slot-holes are provided for storage of idle clamps whose peg-ends will snugly fit therein when they are not in function. They are desirably drilled at the inner plane of the back board underneath the seat board.
 4. A child's chair according to claim 1 wherein provision is being made of extra slot-holes that are drilled in the front rims (edges) of the side-boards parallel to side planes and seat plane, said extra slot-holes being located at the span-width distance of the peg-ends of said clamps from the slot-holes at the top of the back-board of any identical second child's chair that it is placed upside down and reversed on top of the first chair.
 5. A child's chair according to claim 4 whereby a clamp tapper tool is being provided comprising a “design” club's fat-end in one integral part with club's thin-end handle serving as a clamp lever tool, said clamp tapper being pierced with a hole for easy storage when this tool is hold by the stored clamps described in claim 3
 6. A child's chair according to claim 4 wherein boards are being provided with one or more multiform windows.
 7. A method for coupling chairs to construct plaything furnishings, comprising: removing U-shaped clamps from storage positions in respective chairs by lifting the clamps from storage holes with a clamp lever tool; positioning said chairs next, before, reversed, upside down on top, or underneath of each other; positioning one peg-end of a selected clamp over a slot-hole of one of said chairs while simultaneously positioning another peg-end of the same selected clamp over a matching slot-hole of another of said chairs; engaging the peg-ends in the two slot-holes by tapping with a clamp-tapper on said selected clamp until said selected clamp is wedged tight, when circular parts of legs of said selected clamp begins to strand at ingress of slot-holes; and repeating said operation of engaging with remaining ones of said clamps to be engaged tight in other matching slot-holes of said chairs until the positioned chairs are steady for use.
 8. A method according to claim 7, comprising: placing said clamp-lever underneath the bow of said clamp whose peg-ends are tightly wedged in their slot-holes; lifting said clamp by levering for pulling said peg-ends from their slot-holes; repeating said levering for the remaining clamps being in their clamp-function; and placing the freed clamps at their storage positions. 